Drive-by posting: skating!

[icarus]

Up late last night. Skate America got out at 11:30. Yes, that's pm. Get this: Lysacek's final performance started at 11:05. What a ridiculous schedule, do they do this often?

Woke up late this am. Definitely not doing the 7:30am fan fest this am, eh? Driving back and forth between here and Skate America, I think I've worn a trench in the road.

The crowd booed the judges at the end of the men's program when Lysacek came in third. He really sold it in his performance, but I'm guessing he paid a lot of technical points throughout. Must ask roaringmice what she thinks.

My favorite women's skater is Kim Na-Yung. Talk about elegance.

Off to the races. Will reply later.

Skate America's too short!

Comments

[moojja.livejournal.com]

His quad, and second triple Axle was downgraded, and add in the negative GOE for both jumps. That hurt his tech score. Both of his step sequence was level 2, because he didn't use enough upper body movement.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Ah, that makes sense. It's the beginning of the season. They're going to fine tune the program, I'm sure. I wonder if he had more arm movement in the program and let it fall by the wayside....

Exhibition tonight! Whee!

I ended up not going to the fan fest this morning. After getting home at midnight, I just wasn't up for leaving the house this morning at 6:30am.

[iphi1.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I can always count on you to comment on figure skating news. I have been trying to find a tv channel that airs skate america over here (Belgium). That failed spectacularly, today I've just been trying to find sports news that actually mentioned skate america. NO SUCH LUCK. Thank god for you and youtube!!! Apparently, Kevin Van der Perren dropped out of Skate America due to an injury (a fact that wasn't even mentioned in Belgian news) so no one has bothered to keep up with what's been happening.

[heythere10.livejournal.com]

On the CBC, Kurt Browning was ranting about under rotated jumps (quads mostly) from Evan and a few other competitors. There was also chatter about how now that the marking is so fine tuned with vid replay, it's a disadvantage to the people actually IN the arena because they often don't see errors that cost skaters points (under rotated jumps, changes of edge) and don't understand what's going on.

They also mentioned some new rules this season... mostly to do with the quad. You used to be able to attempt it, fall, and get more points than a clean triple. Now, they ding you heavily for falling/under rotating the jump. Instead of getting huge points for falling on a quad, if it's both under rotated and a fall, you end up with something like ONE POINT!!!

Hope you had a ton of fun!

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

Do you get Eurosport? Eurosport has had good coverage of the event.

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

Mooja explained it well.

Evan got killed on the tech. Just as one example, his quad alone was -3 GOE, and it was downgraded to a triple. So for his attempt at a quad, he was scored for a bad triple, and received a 1. Johnny Weir's quad attempt was actually worth more, because although it was downgraded, he got better GOE than Evan did. Kozuka's attempt at a quad was scored as Evan's was.

You can see the actual judges' protocols here, and see exactly how each element was scored, what was downgraded, what got negative GOE, and how Evan compared with Johnny and with Kozuka.
http://www.isufs.org/results/gpusa08/gpusa08_Men_FS_Scores.pdf

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

LOL. Yeah. At first, I was surprised that he got only level 2s for his step sequences. Then I realised that arm flailing probably isn't what the judges mean when they specify upper body movement.

[moojja.livejournal.com]

I hope so. So far I'm not like Tarasova's choreography at all. It doesn't suit him. I didn't mind the arm flailing in last year's programs. Where I thought it fits in with the music and his other body movements. It wasn't nearly as distracting. This year, it's the first thing I noticed.

Tarasova basically choose the music/costume/choreography for him before he even arrived in Russia. On TV, I didn't think he looked comfortable with any of it. But it looked like he got a standing ovation for both SP and LP, so it might be different in person. I can't wait for your report of the event.

Btw, did you base your choreographer inOut of Bounds on Tarasova?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

So far I'm not like Tarasova's choreography at all.

The program reminds me disturbingly of A Nightmare Before Christmas, and I love "Rhapsody In Blue" (all clarinetists do).

Btw, did you base your choreographer inOut of Bounds on Tarasova?

Actually, no, I didn't, though it's funny that I seem to have hit a type. She's based on a friend of mine from Ecuador, combined with someone who coaches in the area.

On TV, I didn't think he looked comfortable with any of it. But it looked like he got a standing ovation for both SP and LP, so it might be different in person.

He looked like he was having fun with it, but mostly he got the standing ovation from really selling the program to the crowd. It was 11:05 at night, everyone was tired after watching 24 skaters in a row, he'd fallen so there was a lot of sympathy -- and then he just filled the room with energy towards the end. I don't know where he gets those end of program reserves but where everyone else starts winding down, his energy builds. He reminds me of Todd Eldredge, only not steady energy like Todd, but more like a roman candle.

I'll try to do it justice when I do my write up. Right now, I think I'm going to read some fanfic and then fall on my nose.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

LOL. You mean the arm gestures need to be conscious?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. So the ISU woke up at the end of last season and decided scoring falls higher than successful jumps was a bad idea?

[iphi1.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do now, since we switched to digital TV. Thank you!!! Goes off to find a tv schedule....

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

Yup.